Beginings and Endings

Today my little sister graduates from high school. This is a good thing, as she will be free.
I'm done with year two. This semester was just awful, class-wise. But it's over and wasn't a complete waste of time. Now on to studying for quals (which are in September) and doing as much research as humanly possible. I'm working on 5 different projects with a possible 6th.
1) Anatomy
2) in vivo physiology
3)in vitro physiology
4) allometry/development
5) cross-taxa coding model
6?) comparative within taxa

As I write this, I'm watching the Blues Brothers--which is always a good choice.
I'm reading Intuition by Allegra Goodman to see if it's a good alternative to the awful novel we read for research ethics. With about 50 pages to go, I'm very pleased. Decent writing + interesting treatment of ethical issues = good choice. Anyone else ever read a good novel about research that has some form of ethics in it?

Peace.

ambivalence

Paper due (almost)
So I have two more days left
Procrastinate much?

I'm writing a paper on octopus intelligence (for animal intelligence seminar, of course). Really. So in that spirit, I give you OCTOPUS VIDEOS!!. They're actually neat little (or giant) organisms. And the invertebrate factor makes for an interesting discussion; one I may subject my dear readers to at some point.
Clearly, I haven't been a very good blogger lately. This semester has been more frenetic than I thought it would be. And I was betting on very. My computational neuro class, while fascinating, involves Matlab programming. Which makes me want to curl up in the fetal position. Cellular and molecular neuro is fantastic and makes me miss biochemistry.
So yes, that brings us to 3 classes. 10 credits. And almost 0 research. This makes me very irritable. I have some data to analyze, but most of it looks like trash. And I have some digital models to work on, but no time to do experiments.
Which brings us to our point: I have a lot of ambivalence about this interdisciplinary program thing. I chose this program, this university because I wanted the broad background in neuroscience. But right now, it is making me absolutely crazy. We're required to take a few more classes than the other biology programs, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but a few more grad classes is a lot. I know I'll be grateful for it in the long run (when I try to get a job), but I just want to be done with classes and get fully into my dissertation research. This is like how I felt about gen ed classes in college. Let's be honest here: US history post-Civil War was a royal pain in the ass when I was taking it. But I'm glad I did.
Has anyone else had this experience?
Anyway, I shall continue to trudge through the code and signal pathways and primary literature.



Peace

what I do for fun now

It's Friday night what
better time to track down some
obscure articles

Internet searching for turtle vocalization sound files led me to a claim that a certain species vocalized. (But why would I trust an wetlands ecologist on that one?) Anyway, I found a journal article backing it up.
FTW.
I really need to get out more.

I am a terible blogger

So, a month plus after my return, I am finally going to share lovely photos from Woods Hole and Boston.
In Boston I got to see Becky! And we wandered about Boston and Cambridge. It was a nice long wander with lovely conversation. Below is one of the public gardens in Boston. Apparently you can rent a plot for a few dollars a year.

Now on to the science! There were 5 of us in one (rather small) lab. Which wasn't terrible, there were only scheduling issues. But the people we shared the lab with were great. And they were awfully informative about a lot. They've been in science, collectively, at least 100 years. So, yes, education was forwarded. And the large square gray building is where the lab was.

And now the best part: This is (approximately) the view from our lab window. How jealous are you now?

Here's the small beach across the street from the lab. There's a really nice dock that I read on too.
Dock:

Peace.

Thursday in the laboratory

My shiny new drill came! That's a good day right there. I've also discovered just how useful DigiMorph is. I'd heard about it but never used it until today. Also, reading circulation diagrams is harder than I expected.

Peace.

fin.

Yours truly has finished PhD year 1. I've been compulsively checking my grades since I found out this morning that 2 of my 3 classes are up. One more. And it's really annoying, in spite of not being worried about the grade.
Finally ran an experiment. After doing about 8 months of preparation, there were still unforeseen "complications." I'm going to call it a wet run. Better luck next time, now that everything's in place. I still may have gotten some usable or semi-usable results. I'll know some time next week
And I get to learn to use the shiny confocal microscope.


Peace.

Research Thwarted

It's spring, clearly. And as it is spring, it's warm enough to turn on the building's air conditioning. I've also finally gotten my tissue sections to be clean and pretty (aka: usable). So I'm all set to start doing reconstructions. Too bad there's an unbalanced fan on the roof that is shaking the building at an unperceivable level and shaking the microscope such that I can't do the reconstruction.
Back to reading articles until we get the fan fixed or a fancy vibration-isolation table.

Papers, Paperwork, Passport

So I have to get a passport. Having only been to Canada when there was no need for a passport, I have to apply for one. This means special photos and Dad mailing my birth certificate (Dear USPS, don't fail me now).
Apparently, I read a lot more papers than most of my colleagues. Not all, but most. Example: today I did a brief literature search. It took me about 10, maybe 15 minutes. There is now a new 2-3 inch stack of articles on my desk. In addition to all the journal articles, I've read all of the relevant parts of The Reptile Ear, which has these fantastic anatomical drawings form the '50s and '60s. They are really quite beautiful. Also, I'm working through herpetology, evolution, and neuroanatomy textbooks. And then there's reading for class and not-class.
Now I know why I took a speed reading seminar.
In case you didn't know, I really hate paperwork. REALLY hate it. There's a fair bit of it to apply to this course in Denmark. Sheesh.
But all is well, because I just watched THE OFFICE.


Peace.